Thursday, August 17, 2017

There are multiple ways to measure your social media engagement, but is there really any value to having a high score beyond bragging rights?

LinkedIn
added in the Social Selling Index (SSI)
when it changed the paid membership format, pushing the most useful functions to the Sales Navigator platform.

The SSI
measures four factors and only measures within LinkedIn. Each factor has a 25
point scale. The four factors are:

-“Establish
your professional brand”

-“Find
the right people”

-“Engage
and insights”

-“Build
relationships”

You can make
an argument for including these in an index, but as the exclusive
measurements, I think not.

First,
brands have set components, but the value of each component and how you present
it can vary from market to market, and from niche to niche within a market.

Second,
these do not and cannot factor in the quality of connections you are making and
the value of each viewer you are getting. All profile viewers are not created equal.

Third, how
you engage goes back to my niche statement above. Certain elements of the
Government Contracting community will necessarily do less on public platforms because of the
nature of the client and the business associated with that client.

Fourth
building relationships in this GovCon is predicated on who you need to know: if
you are focused on a single agency (account or agency based marketing - ABM) and a specialty area within that
agency, your relationship building activity will taper off as you become more pervasive,
and your SSI score in this category will probably fall.

Are you less
successful? No.

The SSI is
predicated on perpetual activity and growth. While I am in favor of a steady
flow of activity, once you maximize the penetration into a specific account or
agency, you will level off.

Depending on
your industry, an average SSI score seems to run between 20-28, which does not seem very
high. But factor in how many people do little or nothing on LinkedIn and it
makes sense.

I see the
SSI as a quantity over quality tool, and therefore not as useful as it perhaps
could be.

Another
popular social activity measurement tool is Klout. Klout measures your
social activity on multiple networks (LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Google+, YouTube, Pinterest, FourSquare, Flickr, Tumblr, Instagram and others), and has multiple
touchpoints for each that measure the level of your engagement.

There are
some other social engagement measuring tools, but many ignore Linkedin and each
seems to be limited in some way.

While I am a
huge fan of LinkedIn, it is the not the only place you need to be active.

LinkedIn still includes Twitter in its
“share” function. Why? Because it will lead people back to LinkedIn. It no longer has a Facebook share, and I'm not certain if it ever had Google+. Not having these is myopic on the part of LinkedIn.

I found
that as I did more writing on my own blog as opposed to writing on LinkedIn
(sharing the same way, through groups, Twitter and posting the link on other
networks) my Klout score went up, but my SSI went down. My Klout score runs in the low 60s (up from low 50s) and my SSI runs between 71-75 (down from mid-to-high 80s)

My issue
with Klout is that it measures your activity, but again not necessarily the quality
of that activity. It does make up for this by taking into account views, shares
and other factors, which LinkedIn barely touches on.

The final
answer on measuring social engagement must come from you.

What are your criteria for
success? Have you achieved your goals? Have you met key people and set up
meetings? Have you won new business?

Neither the
SSI, Klout nor any other tool can measure this for you.

Knowing your
SSI and Klout scores is nice, but it may not be measuring your real impact on
LinkedIn and social media in general.

Bragging rights for a high score does not necessarily translate into success.Feedback is welcomed and appreciated!

(This post is adapted from LinkedIn for GovCon, which will be available soon via Amazon)

Thursday, July 27, 2017

The government often says it wants to operate more like business.
Business knows that when the market chooses a particular way of doing business
(in this case buying professional services), you push that venue and you reward
those in charge for a job well done.

It seems GSA wants the market to buy more professional services from the
Schedule and less from OASIS, regardless of the success of OASIS, amply demonstrated
by the migration of government buyers.

The result: a surprise "voluntary" total turnover of the OASIS management team,
occurring late Friday, July 22. Remember Nixon’s Saturday night massacre, done
late on a Saturday to avoid news cycles?

Todd Richard's team is the repository of OASIS's institutional knowledge. Removing and replacing the team that created the success at OASIS is a poor business decision,
driven by myopic management.

Are there other factors at play here? Yes- but the bottom line is
removing an entire management team- especially in the 4th quarter - is not, as GSAs Tiffany Hixson wrote, "(As with all programs,
personnel changes and departures are) a natural part of professional development
and program evolution."

Sunday, June 4, 2017

Social
selling: the process of getting and staying on the radar of potential
partners and prospects in a positive way via social networks; positioning your
company in a manner that makes it stand apart from and abovethe competition; solidify and expand relationships with existing customers.

Social selling is not a hard-sell tool; it is a soft-sell, stay on the radar tool. And it works.

It should be a year round process, but it
could be especially useful at the end of an FY when your customers and prospects just got their budget
approval.

Nothing like getting your full budget in the last third of the FY!

LinkedIn is
ideal for end-of-FY as there are at least 1.6 million Feds on LinkedIn (from my 2016 research), with a
significant percentage in management positions. You can find key people by
searching for their agencies (listed just like company profiles) and scrolling
through the employees.

All federal agencies, including the IC, are represented on LinkedIn.

Having reviewed all federal agencies on LinkedIn, and having scrolled through thousands of profiles, my empirical research shows that at least 15% of federal employees on LinkedIn have IT-related job titles. About 35% have program, project or general management functions, and between 5-10% have executive level job titles.

For any government contractor, this is a gene pool worth looking into.

Looking for
more business at CMS? Try scrolling through the 3,125 employees on LinkedIn
until you see a job title that gets your attention.

How about DISA? There are
4,320 employees on LinkedIn.

Looking for current or former SEWP employees or contractors? I can find 1,399 LinkedIn members who have SEWP in their description. I found a proposal expert with SEWP experience for a client bidding on SEWP V.

Looking for contacts in the systems integration community? GDIT has 14,616 LinkedIn members. CACI taps in at 12,775, and Raytheon at 39,967.

The GovCon community, Feds and contractors, are on LinkedIn.

However, the vast majority of contractors have a "drive by" mentality when it comes to LinkedIn, using it only when they have a specific inquiry (who is the person that wants to connect, or who is the PM for SEWP at Red River).

We all use LinkedIn that way, but the more intelligent companies are using it to map out strategic connection strategies, meet key players, set up meetings, for account/agency-based marketing (ABM), for content sharing and much more.LinkedIn should be a part of your
end-of-FY marketing, and part of your year-round sales, marketing and business development efforts.

< I offer customized training on Social Selling for GovCon nationwide via webinar. Drop me a line for details - markamtower@gmail.com

Wednesday, May 3, 2017

Holy guacamole Batman- Art Richer, president of the immixGroup for 18 years (1998-2016) has moved over to competitor DLT Solutions.

In February of 2015, international IT distributor Arrow bought immixGroup . In my LinkedIn post I said this would change the face of GovCon IT products sales over time. Apparently the current investment bank owner of DLT agrees, at least to a point.

There have been numerous changes at the top levels of DLT over the past few weeks, but I have to say I was surprised to hear that Art Richer, one of the three architects of immixGroup (along with founder Jeff Copeland and Steve Charles) was moving into the top spot at DLT.

There are three major value-added distributors (VAD) in GovCon: Carahsoft (by far the largest), immixGroup (now owned by Arrow), and DLT. While DLT technically was first into this category, they have not experienced significant growth since Craig Abod (founder and CEO of Carahsoft) left in 2004.

Each of these VADs represents a suite of OEMs in the GovCon arena. Each has a good array of contracts (IDIQs, GWACs, BPAs and GSA) and each sells direct to Feds (and SLED) as well as working with other resellers in the channel.

So here's my take on why DLT has hired Art.

1) The owners are tired of being third in a three-horse race. Art is arguably the most talented person available and if anyone can spur growth, he's the one.

2) LPTA has made the channel tough for everyone, Each of the VADs has to work closer and more productively with OEMs and VARs to make this model profitable. I think Art will expand DLTs influence with the VARs.

3) There are other international distributors out there (Ingram Micro, TechData, Synnex and others) who are paying close attention to this as it develops.

Is Art at DLT to grow the business, sell the business, or both?

It makes me wonder why Arrow let Art go....

And it makes me wonder if Bob Laclede might end up at DLT as well. He knows the GovCon VAR community better than anyone I know.

(I do not currently advise any of the companies in this post. These are my thoughts as a market observor.)

Saturday, March 11, 2017

Are you a small contractor that has a GSA Schedule, or prime spot on a GWAC or other IDIQ and you are not getting traction?

We should talk.

Winning business from an IDIQ is part art and part science, but requires planning, execution and making the right decisions.

Sometimes you need to make quick decisions and may not have sufficient data or the experience to make the best decision.

**When a major GovCon trade conference was announced two years
ago, I advised my clients not to participate due to the event's lack of focus. Only one client did not listen and they spent over $35,000, plus time
and personnel, in an event that was a three-day total flop. Prep time, staff time, cash spent and three days on-site at the event down the drain.

**One of my clients was considering joining a major trade association simply for exposure, and the fee to join was in the mid 4-figures. She brought this up during our regular call and I asked her if she had heard of a small group of contractors that targeted the agency where 80% of her work was performed, primarily as a sub-contractor. She hadn't but after joining, she developed relationships with other small contractors and a few larger primes, and won more business.

The wrong decision can waste time and money.

The right adviser can help you make more money from contracts you already have.

My advice to client companies has saved time and money, led
to extraordinary opportunities, identified key differentiators leading to
significant market share, created media coverage, and generally helped
companies establish a more viable and profitable presence in the government market. I have
helped my clients dramatically increase the dollar value of their contracts,
often spending much less on marketing.

If your marketing and
business development efforts are not paying significant dividends, we should talk.

Due to requests and advice from a few friends, clients and
former clients, I am offering a year-long GovCon Advisory Program. Rather than
charge an hourly fee to companies tapping into my expertise on a semi-regular
basis, I have created an advisory program that small companies can afford.

Saturday, March 4, 2017

Much has been written about GWACs over the past few years, both
collectively and as individual contracts. In the fall of 2016, Bloomberg
Government (BGov) released astudystating GWACs hit a record $10 billion in 2016.

I agree it was a record year, but my tally shows about $15
billion. I got my data from theGSA GWAC dashboard, a call to the
SEWP office and from having worked with NITAAC most of FY 2016. GSAs combined
GWACs are nearly $6.2 billion,NITAACs 3 GWACs almost $5 billion, andSEWPcame in at about
$4 billion.

Regardless of the actual total, GWAC the dollars and growth are real. Everett Dirksonwould be impressed, because now we're talking real money.

So overall a good year across the board for the eight GWACs. But before
we proceed, here’s…

A Brief History of GWACs

As things go in GovCon, GWACs are
a relatively new contracting method, the first being SEWP, a pilot GWAC awarded
in November 1992, but
the awards were delayed due to the Presidential transition until Feb 1993. This was
a primarily single award contract, with one category having more than one
awardee.

It was awarded as the pilot GWAC (a test case) under
GSA delegation of procurement authority; Clinger-Cohen
created the official Executive Agent designation for GWACs under OMB.

The second GWAC came in 1996, the HHS/NIH contract, ECS, was the first multiple-award GWAC that got significant
traction for small businesses. ECS was awarded to three large companies, seven
small companies and seven 8(a)s, and according the Federal Computer Week from a 1996 article, the smalls did
pretty well.

SEWP I offered a category for multiple awards, but it was not until SEWP
II that the MAC version was more fully implemented.

In the late 1990s there were several agencies trying to launch GWAC
experiments, including Commerce, Transportation and Interior. They soon found
that the successful management of a GWAC was not simple. Commerce punted
COMMITS to GSA and to the best of my recollection, the others just folded up
and went away.

So in the early
2000s, three agencies emerged from the quagmire with viable vehicles: NASA, NIH
and GSA.

In the summer of 2006 I interviewed Max Peterson about selling to the
government. In a four hour CD interview one of many stand-out quotes was as VP
of Sales for CWD-G, his team had the “IT product trifecta: SEWP, ECS and GSA
Schedule 70.” This, he said, covered all the agency bases.

Fast forward to today 25 years later, and there are still only three agencies authorized by OMB to award GWACS: GSA,
HHS/NIH (NITAAC), and NASA. GSA contracts are Alliant II, Alliant II Small
Business, 8(a) STARS II, and VETS. NITAAC contracts are CIO-SP3, CIO-SP3 Small
business, and CIO-CS (formerly ECS). NASAs contract is SEWP V.

Eight GWACs and billions of bucks.

Back to the Present

Why the seemingly "sudden" growth in the popularity of GWACs?
There are several factors.

First, and perhaps most obvious, many of the companies that own prime
spots on the GWACs are out there actively pushing these vehicles to their
customer and prospect base. The GWACs usually offer lower fees for
agencies than the GSA Schedules, are very easy to use, have vetted providers, and
have a broad range of products and services. The companies that are most
successful on GWACs - even small companies - areaggressive in promoting those GWACs.
Just look at the growth ofRed River, a top SEWP perfomer over the past several years. Red River is also one
of several contractor to hold both SEWP V and CIO-CS.

World Wide Technology, a SEWP contractor for 3 iterations and now on CIO-CS, has leveraged these vehicles very well over the years.

Which leads to factor two: OEMs and service providers love GWACs.OEMs without access to GWACs or other IDIQs have
limited access to Federal buyers.When
Oracle announced it would no longer make products available on any GSA
Schedule, do you think it hurt their sales?

Probably not, as their partners in the GovCon arena own spots on
multiple GWACs and other IDIQs. One major partner,DLT Solutions, is on SEWP V,
CIO-CS and has an Army BPA for Oracle. Oracle's departure from GSA Schedules
will hurt Schedule 70, not Oracle.

I advise hardware manufacturers to talk to both NITAAC and SEWP
directly, then to look for key contract holders, preferably companies that have
spots on both contracts. Adding new OEMs on SEWP and CIO-CS takes hours, not
weeks or months. I often assist OEMs in their search for right channel partners.

Another factor
contributing to the growth is the number ofsub-contractorsfor these vehicles is growing. Most of
the prime contract holders welcome the new subs if it is a good fit for them
and the contract.Joanne Woytekof SEWP,Casey Kelleyof Alliant andRob Coen, then with NITAAC
but now at FEDSIM all discussed this aspect of their respective contracts when
they were guests on my radio show onFederal News Radio. GWACs and IDIQs
are frequent topics on my show.

If you don't have
a prime spot on one of the GWACs, look for a partner that does.

Yet another factor is that each of the GWAC program managers will spend
time with any agency contract shop explaining how and why to use their
contracts, as well asthe
lower fees and theease of use. SEWP and NITAAC are quite
active in this.

Alliant’s Casey Kelley and his team have taken spending time with
agencies to a new level, getting agreements with some agencies (after mutual vetting
for a good fit) to use Alliant as a preferred contract.

We are also seeing morecontract
specific training events, a key to educating both buyers and sellers. I
have moderated GWAC panels at conferences like930Gov and theGovernment Procurement Conferencebecause of the growing popularity of GWACs. Alliant, NITAAC and SEWP all held events in early 2017.

Then there is theFITARAhalo effect.NITAAC hase-GOS, a
dashboard that allows the agency (and the contractor) to see and download their
entire transaction history: date, price paid, vendor, product/service, SIN,
delivery and much more. This helps the buying agency when it does FITARA
reporting. SEWP is launching a similar dashboard in 2017.

As FITARA will probably be with us for a while, the dashboards will make
reporting almost seamless,making
the contracts more attractive to CIOs, who are being held more accountable for IT purchases.

Where Does
the GWAC Growth Come From?

Although there are other factors at play, when you tally the
pluses of GWACs against the mis-adventures of strategic sourcing (FSSI), TDR
and other GSA Schedule changes, GWACs come out looking like manna from heaven
for both buyers and sellers.

Indefinite Delivery, Indefinite
Quantity (IDIQs) are contracts that have no money assigned specifically
to the contract, but that are open to audiences defined by the type of
contract.GWACs
(Government-wide Acquisition Contract), for example, are IDIQ IT contracts open
to all federal agencies, but like GSA Schedules, are simply a hunting license.

The
companies that win the coveted spots on each of the GWACs arepre-vettedthrough the award process,
technically making them more attractive to all federal buyers. The bidding and
award processes are vigorous, weeding out the contractors that are not ready
for prime-time.

The
dramatic growth for GWACs over recent years has caught the attention of many,
making these coveted vehicles even more popular for both the contract holder
and the buying agencies.

The
question ishow does the
growth occur?

There
is no question that theNITAAC
GWACsgrowth during the Rob
Coen years (2009-2016, and being PM from 2012-2016) was nothing short of
spectacular. NITAAC is now under the direction of Acting PM Bridget Gauer with
basically the same team, so growth should continue. The three NITAAC GWACs (CIO-SP3,
CIO-SP3 Small Business and CIO-CS) combined for nearly $5 billion in 2016.

SEWP, under the guidance of Joanne
Woytek for the last 18 years, has always been a great performer and sought
after vehicle for contractors. Joanne has the most experience running a GWAC
and the SEWP program is deservedly the best known GWAC in the GovCon arena.
SEWP had its best year ever in 2016 with nearly $4 billion.

Casey
Kelley and hisAlliantteam have another growing GWAC
that has introduced a unique process for awarding contract wins.
Alliant and the other GSA GWACs (Alliant II, Alliant II Small Business, 8aSTARS
II, VETS2) combined for almost $6 billion in 2016.

Each
of the GWAC Program Managers works hard for their contracts,but does that lead to the
growth?

The
answer is yes, with a caveat.The caveat is that like the GSA
Schedule contracts, the GWACs and other multiple-award IDIQs have
super-performers, adequate performers, and not-so-great performers.Companies with well-managed
contracts help the GWACs grow.

The
difference between the top performers and other contract holders comes down to
how the program is managed on the contractor side. This includes several
factors, among them:

- - Therelationship between the contractor
and the GWAC contract office, the teams on each side, is critical to
growth. The government team can show no preference for any contractor, but each
GWAC PM and their team is open to working with any contractor to help them be
successful. SEWP’s Woytek personally visits each contract holder to ensure they
understand the value of the vehicle and how to leverage it. This has been a
trademark of SEWP for at least the last two iterations of the contract. Not all
contractors take full advantage of this.

- - EachGWAC has agencies that prefer their
respective vehicles. While technically any agency can buy off any of these
contracts, some agencies prefer CIO-CS over SEWP V and vice versa, some
agencies have signed agreements with a GWAC to declare them a preferred
vehicle, and so on. The contract holders that understand which agencies prefer
which contracts, and grow deeper relationships with those agencies, tend to win
more business through the contract. Not brain surgery, but also not a method
employed by all.

- - The
contractors willing topush
the bounds of the contractinto
new agencies also find allies in the contract Program Managers. The PMs will
help educate an agency on the value of their contract without endorsing any
particular contractor. When a contractor takes this approach, it could be for
several reasons, including their current relationships with that agency, or
perhaps they uncovered a specific opportunity where a certain GWAC would be
best used. In any case, this is a longer term tactic not employed by chronic
under-performers.

- - The
approach by the contract holders on thesales,
business development and marketingpart
of the equation differ widely. In part this is a resource issue (smaller
companies have fewer resources to draw on) and in part it is because some companies
with multiple contracts market all the contracts together, not each separately.
Other companies still suffer under the misguided notion that winning a contract
makes the phone ring. Not so. Aligning your marketing, BD and sales and
creating specific programs to target specific opportunities increases sales.A separate Off-White Paper on this
topic is forthcoming.

- - The
ability for contractors torespond
quickly and accurately to the RFQsthat
come from the GWAC contract office is the most obvious part of the puzzle.
However as we all know, responding to RFPs and RFQs is part art, part science,
part reading between the lines and part knowing the customer and his/her
preferences on both the responses and the bidders knowledge of the agency and
how that plays out in the response by the contractor.

While
this is not a complete inventory of factors for why some companies perform
better than others, it does touch on some significant points.

My
point is winning a spot on a great contract is just the beginning of the
process.

Growing
the contract business is the job of the GWAC PM. Growingyour shareof that business is up to you.

That combination makes the GWAC more attractive to government buyers.

Why some GWAC contractors are better at monetizing contracts

Here are a few final thoughts on why some
GWAC contractors do better than others.

First, contractors with good
relationships to OEMs often have an easier time with vendor registrations.
Which leads to…

Contractors that know the target agency
better than others are more likely to know when something is coming to
fruition. One of my contractor friends has a DHS rep second to none.
Consequently, this rep surpasses his goals and drives significant business
through various contracts, but does so because of a deep knowledge of the
agency and knowing exactly when to get his contracting office to register a
deal.

Third, knowing when to take your
executives to client meetings is critical in building a relationship with the
customer. I’ve seen too many smaller companies where this simply does not
occur.

GWACs are only as good as the GWAC program office. SEWP has been a leader in this realm, but NITAAC and Alliant
have closed the gap. The Alliant team is
the best of the GSA GWACs. (1)

In the end, it’s relationships:
contractor of GWAC program office, contractor to agency, contractor to OEM.

Back to the Future

Given the uncertainty
about the budget (perpetual continuing resolution and civilian agency spending) and the direction the new administration might take on both program and procurement issues, I think the use of established GWACs and IDIQs like OASIS
will rise dramatically over the next few years.

Not that I have an opinion.

***

(1): there
was nothing about VETS and 8(a) STARS in this because neither seems to have
great traction, and I don’t hear much about either contract from media or
industry. If you have details on either, drop me a line.

* This article
is a combination of two recent blog posts and one newsletter article. I merged
them into one piece to organize my own thoughts, then share them. This version was first published in my newsletter, The Amtower Report.

Friday, February 24, 2017

Let me preface this by saying I am not a contract expert – I
am a marketing guy. However, over the last 30+ years I have advised thousands
of companies on how to maximize the dollar value of contracts in the federal
market. Several of those I have advised became or remain market leaders. My
experience marketing GWACs dates back to the mid-1990s when I was an advisor to
PRC on the SuperMini contract, the 2nd GWAC ever awarded.

Great- that’s out of the way.

Indefinite Delivery, Indefinite Quantity (IDIQs) are contracts that
have no money assigned specifically to the contract, but that are open to
audiences defined by the type of contract. GWACs (Government-wide Acquisition
Contract), for example, are IDIQ IT contracts open to all federal agencies, but like GSA Schedules, are simply a hunting license.

This paper will focus on GWACs.

The companies that win the coveted
spots on each of the GWACs are pre-vetted through the award process,
technically making them more attractive to all federal buyers. the bidding and award process are vigorous, weeding out the contractors that not ready for prime-time.

So- to the point. The dramatic growth
for GWACs over recent years has caught the attention of many, making these coveted
vehicles even more popular for both the contract holder and the buying
agencies.

The question is how
does the growth occur?

There is no question that the NITAAC GWACs growth during the Rob Coen
years (2009-2016, and being PM from 2012-2016) was nothing short of
spectacular. NITAAC is now under the direction of Acting PM Bridget Gauer with
basically the same team, so growth should continue. The three NITAAC GWACs (CIO-SP3, CIO-SP3 Small Business and CIO-CS)
combined for nearly $5 billion in 2016.

SEWP, under the guidance of Joanne Woytek for the last 18 years,
has always been a great performer and sought after vehicle for contractors.
Joanne has the most experience running a GWAC and the SEWP program is
deservedly the best known GWAC in the GovCon arena. SEWP had its best year ever
in 2016 with nearly $4 billion.

Casey Kelley and his Alliant team have another growing GWAC
that has introduced has introduced a unique process for awarding contract wins.
Alliant and the other GSA GWACs (Alliant II, Alliant II Small Business, 8aSTARS
II, VETS2) combined for almost $6 billion in 2016.

Each of the GWAC Program Managers
works hard for their contracts, but does that lead to the growth?

The answer is yes, with a caveat.
The caveat is that like the GSA Schedule contracts, the GWACs and other
multiple-award IDIQs have super-performers, adequate performers, and
not-so-great performers. Companies with well-managed contracts help the GWACs
grow.

The difference between the top
performers and other contract holders comes down to how the program is managed
on the contractor side. This includes several factors, among them:

-The relationship
between the contractor and the GWAC contract office, the teams on each side,
is critical to growth. The government team can show no preference for any
contractor, but each GWAC PM and their team is open to working with any
contractor to help them be successful. SEWP’s Woytek personally visits each
contract holder to ensure they understand the value of the vehicle and how to
leverage it. This has been a trademark of SEWP for at least the last two
iterations of the contract. Not all contractors take full advantage of this.

-Each GWAC
has agencies that prefer their respective vehicles. While technically any
agency can buy off any of these contracts, some agencies prefer CIO-CS over
SEWP V and vice versa, some agencies have signed agreements with a GWAC to
declare them a preferred vehicle, and so on. The contract holders that
understand which agencies prefer which contracts, and grow deeper relationships
with those agencies, tend to win more business through the contract. Not brain
surgery, but also not a method employed by all.

-The contractors willing to push the bounds of the contract into new agencies also find allies
in the contract Program Managers. The PMs will help educate an agency on the
value of their contract without endorsing any particular contractor. When a
contractor takes this approach, it could be for several reasons, including
their current relationships with that agency, or perhaps they uncovered a
specific opportunity where a certain GWAC would be best used. In any case, this
is a longer term tactic not employed by chronic under-performers.

-The approach by the contract holders on the sales, business development and marketing
part of the equation differ widely. In part this is a resource issue (smaller
companies have fewer resources to draw on) and in part it is because some
companies with multiple contracts market all the contracts together, not each
separately. Other companies still suffer under the misguided notion that
winning a contract makes the phone ring. Not so. Aligning your marketing, BD
and sales and creating specific programs to target specific opportunities
increases sales. A separate Off-White
Paper on this topic is forthcoming.

-The ability for contractors to respond quickly and accurately to the RFQs
that come from the GWAC contract office is the most obvious part of the puzzle.
However as we all know, responding to RFPs and RFQs is part art, part science,
part reading between the lines and part knowing the customer and his/her
preferences on both the responses and the bidders knowledge of the agency and
how that plays out in the response by the contractor.

While this is not a complete
inventory of factors for why some companies perform better than others, it does
touch on some significant points.

My point is winning a spot
on a great contract is just the beginning of the process.

Growing the contract business is the job of the GWAC PM. Growing your share of that business is up to
you.

That combination makes the GWAC more attractive to government buyers.

***
If you aren't getting traction from your GWAC, we should talk. Send me an email at markamtower@gmail.com

· * The Amtower Off-White Papers began in mid-1998 with “The
GSA Schedule Results,” the first study showing that growth on the GSA Schedule
was contractor-driven (see link below). The growth drivers at that time were
Dell, Gateway and Micron PC. My Off-White Papers are based on market
observations and my market knowledge, not scientific research. Each Off-White
Paper uses facts, market observations and my point of view, honed by experience
and constant observation of the key and emerging players. The term “Off-White”
is my differentiator, indicating that the conclusions are predicated on how I
see things playing out at a particular moment in time in the complex world of
government contracting.

Wednesday, February 15, 2017

If you have the new LinkedIn user Interface, you are probably wondering where some of the functionality disappeared to. This is one of may topics that I'll address int e the March 7 LinkedIn Black Belt Workshop.

If this is your year for LinkedIn, this is your workshop. Only 18 seats per session. Real info from the front lines of LinkedIn - stuff you can use today, tomorrow and going forward.

Learn the tactics that make you and your company stand out in your niche.

Without a doubt, LinkedIn is the premier social network for business professionals. With over 465 million business professionals and over 11 million individual company profiles, LinkedIn is the place to be found, and to find and connect with influencers in your market niche.

However it is estimated that fewer than 20% of LinkedIn members use it effectively, and less than 10% truly maximize the value this powerful tool can bring to you and your company. It is time for you to migrate to LinkedIn power user!

LinkedIn has

- 465 million+ members

- 1.6 million federal managers, IT profiessionals and employees

- Millions of seaches every day are done on LinkedIn

- Almost 12 million company profiles

- Over 3 million groups representing every imaginable business niche

- All Fortune 500 are represented

- YOUR PROSPECTS (they are here)!

And you have the opportunity to stand out!

Attend the LinkedIn Black Belt Workshop and you will learn how to

- Design a strategy that fits your business goals

- Create a powerful LinkedIn profile that attracts targeted prospects and encourages people to connect with you

- Find and connect with those who can help your business grow- prospects, partners, media and more

- Select the groups that will pay dividends

- Find and develop content to share in those groups that makes you stand out